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Mayors ask Ottawa to take over Ontario’s basic income pilot project

Four Ontario mayors are urging the federal government to take over the province’s basic income pilot project, saying many participants in their communities were thriving and that the research from it would provide “critical information.”

“We would prefer the province do what they promised to do during the campaign, but they’ve decided not to,” said Hamilton Mayor Fred Eisenberger, one of the signatories, referring to a statement from a senior official on Premier Doug Ford’s election team who said the program would continue as planned.

The federal government now has the chance to “pick it up and fulfil the three-year mandate, and get the value of the research,” he said. The research was being conducted by more than 40 experts at St. Michael’s Hospital and McMaster University.

“This was an opportunity for us to have a fact-based, evidence-based evaluation” of how such an approach can improve lives, and potentially save money down the road on things like health care, Eisenberger added.

Ontario’s pilot project provided 4,000 low-income residents in Hamilton-Brantford, Thunder Bay and Lindsay with a steady income of $16,989, and up to $24,027 for couples, while researchers looked at how it affected their lives. Mayors representing all four municipalities signed the letter.

“It’s a bit of a long shot,” Eisenberger said of the plea for Ottawa to step in. “It’s not an inexpensive program to pick up, but one of great value.”

At this point, the federal government has given no indication it will take over, though the mayors note in their letter that Ottawa was interested in seeing how participants fared.

Social assistance programs fall under provincial oversight, said Valérie Glazer, press secretary to federal Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

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“We have always been clear about our government’s openness to sharing relevant data with provinces that are launching guaranteed annual income initiatives and to monitoring the implementation and progress of such initiatives,” Glazer said.

The mayors’ letter — also signed by Brantford’s Chris Friel, Andy Letham of Kawartha Lakes and Keith Hobbs of Thunder Bay — says they were “gratified that our communities were chosen as the pilot test sites” when it began back in April 2017 and that “jurisdictions from around the world were observing the Ontario pilot with great interest.

“The Ontario government’s cancellation of the pilot is distressing to participants and discouraging to all seeking a better way to assist vulnerable citizens. The minister of community social services indicated that the pilot was a disincentive to work, and yet ignored the reality that two-thirds of pilot participants are currently working (some perhaps at part-time jobs) but seemingly very interested in contributing to the community and enhancing their skills.”

The $50-million-a-year pilot, ushered in by the previous Liberal government was to end in 2020 but will now wind down a year early.

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About one-third of the money has already been spent and “will otherwise be lost,” the mayors argue.

In a statement to the Star, Mayor Letham said keeping the pilot project running “offers an opportunity to improve the system. We need to find a better way to assist those who are living on low income and struggling to make ends meet.”

“I am neither for, nor against basic income as a matter of policy,” he also wrote. “I believe that more information and data is needed to assess the merits/downsides of the basic income program as a form of social assistance.”

Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod has said “a research project that helps less than 4,000 people is not the answer and provides no hope to the nearly two million Ontarians who are trapped in the cycle of poverty.”

Her ministry is currently conducting a review of how to improve the system.

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